European airlines to start controversial biofuel-powered flights

Air France-KLM say they will be operating more than 200 biofuel-powered flights by September, using a mix of biofuel and conventional fossil fuels. While British Airways are planning to build a biofuel production plant to ‘encourage others to follow our lead’. So far aviation industry leaders have been careful to promote the importance of sustainable biofuels and claim to be sourcing plants from within Europe. However, Swedish biofuels giant Neste Oil, who are one of the companies who plan to supply airlines with biofuels, use a combination of plants that is 80 per cent oil palm - predominantly grown in Malaysia and Indonesia and linked to the continued loss of tropical rainforest in those countries